This time around
by moonlightfan78
Summary: Set at the beginning of the City of Bones, a slightly different story for our favorite shadowhunters. What if Clary and Jace had met before? In another life? Would they remember? Would it affect the here and now? lets find out
1. Chapter 1

London, 1880

The demon hissed and turned, swinging razor like claws at anyone in striking distance. Clarissa dodged a bladed arm and spun around kicking the thing in the back with her booted foot. Her foot sank in and she had to pull hard to get it back. The thing squealed and flew forward hitting the wall. She breathed deeply as she regained her footing. She pushed the long brown hair that had come loose form her bun back behind her ear and smiled at the tall man beside her. He grunted and grabbed at a gash in his arm looking up at her from under the curtain of hair that had freed itself from his que. She quickly looked at the gash and noticed the pumping blood. She leaned down to rip a strip off her skirt but got knocked off her feet again as the monster reared and smacked her with it's whip like tail. Christopher grunted again as he tried to push her out of the way, unfortunately the thing was a fast as it was stupid and they had underestimated it. The tail crashed into her stomach with a sickening thud sending her into the brick wall. She felt her head thud as it contacted the brick hard enough to cause blackness to surround her vison. She felt her head slice open and begin to bleed as the world spun.

Christopher growled and tamped down the fear inside him as he saw Clarissa hit the wall. The thing was between them and he had to get to her. He saw the blood smeared on the wall where her head hit and knew he had to get to her. He faced off with the thing still holding his injured arm. The blade was stiff and the wound still pumping blood but he had to help Clarissa.

The grotesque thing sniffed the air and licked what passed for its lips. It wanted him and fear for him cleared her vision. She shook her head and got to her feet as quickly as her addled senses would allow. Her head swam and she felt her stomach rebel at the thought of being on her feet for any reason, but this was the most important reason she could think of, saving him. She ran at the thing like a crazy person, screaming for all she was worth. It was enough to distract it and while it was looking at her Christopher ran forward and impailed it on his glowing sword. The thing screamed as the metal popped out it's back and it staggered. Chris looked at her and gave her a pained smile as he caught her in motion and flipped her in the air, she knew what to do, it was in ever fiber of her being, She had been born for this. She spun around mid flip and sliced down at the creature, taking off it's head with the blade embedded in the toe of her boot. The thing looked surprised for a moment before it fell apart. Clarissa landed shakily and ran to where Christopher leaned against the wall, exhausted. Her vision was blurry but she grabbed her skirt and finished ripping off the material. She wrenched it tight around his arm and he swore as she pulled it tight, cutting off the flow of blood.

"Damn" he said with a hiss as the turnicate cut off the blood to his arm and stopped the bleeding "you sure know how to make a bad situation worse. I'm not sure if I wouldn't rather deal with the demon."

Clarissa sighed as she saw the blood stop and then she shrugged, She pushed his brown brown hair back and smiled into his golden eyes, "fine, I'll just leave you to it, maybe it has a friend here somewhere, you can manage it by yourself." She made to rise but he pulled her back until she was against his chest.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist". He said softly as he ran his hands up and under her hair. The gash on her scalp still bled but she shook her head gently letting him know she would live.

"Stupid American, " she said with a fond, tired smile "always think you don't need help."

"but I do need you." He said sofly as he smiled and pulled her close, he tipped her chin up and kissed her gently. He kissed her lips, and then her hand on which rested his family ring. "Always."

Clarissa smiled as she put her hand on his chest and pulled it away shocked to see it covered in red. Under all the icor and demon guts she had missed it. How could she have missed it? Christopher sighed and his legs gave out. He hit the cobble stone and smiled at her wearily. Clarissa sank to her knees in front of him and ripped his shirt open. His chest was seeping blood and black bile so fast that the blood she'd gotten on her hands seemed like small slice. There was blood everywhere.

Clarissa clutched Chris as he fell and he ended up on her lap. His head nuzzled her as she desperately scrolled an iratze rune on his chest. It sizzled and faded almost as quickly as she did it but she kept it up. Her fingers desperately worked even as he touched her face turning her to him.

"I love you" he said softly, too softly for her liking. She felt a sick fear in her heart as his eyes began to close.

"NO, Christopher Herondale, Don't you dare leave me. I Love you please." She wasn't sure he could hear her, wasn't used to begging for anything but it seemed like she'd run out of hands as she shook him and drew iratze runes faster than she'd thought possible. She was wild and desperate, not sure what she would do if she lost him. The black hole of terror beckoned and she saw it getting wider and wider as Christopher didn't respond. She screamed and shook him, scrawling rune after rune, even after it was apparent he was gone. She kept on until her cousin Charlotte, with tears on her cheeks, pulled her away and she finally lost her battle to stay conscious and slipped into the dark.

"No!" the screamed echoed through the halls bouncing back and feeling twenty times it's volume. Clary shivered as she pulled the blanket around her and wiped the tears off her face. She tried not to make noise when the dreams came but this was different, this time it had felt more real than she could have imagined. She pushed her hair back in frustration and huddled under the blanket not sure what to do now. She pulled on her favorite hoodie over her cami and sleep pants and slid out of bed. She padded down the hall and slipped quietly up onto the roof her building. Her mother would be asleep, or at least she hoped she would be, and she didn't want to wake her. She could think better up here on the roof anyway and she had a lot to think about. Her mother had been silent and distant lately and as her birthday approached she could tell something was going on but her mother kept denying it. It felt like she never got the truth anymore and her mom was getting crazier on her the closer her birthday got.

Clary sat with a thump on the old couch cushion she'd dragged up here just for this. She pushed her riot of curly red hair back and rubbed her eyes. The stars danced around her and for once she could see the sky. The darkness was complete this high up with the street lights below not quite reaching her. Clary laid her head back against the chimney and watched the night drift by. She was going to be 16 in two days and it felt like everything she knew was falling apart. Her relationship with her mom was crap and Simon was hinting in a not so subtle way that he wanted to be more than friends. Those two things alone made her head hurt, not to mention the dreams.

They weren't always bad, although they all woke her in a cold sweat. Sometimes they were sweet and even erotic, waking her up in a sweat of an entirely different kind. She smiled as the images of Christopher's lean muscled chest and hard body returned. She wondered for the millionth time if she were crazy, dreaming about fighting demons and making love to arguably one of the hottest men she'd ever seen. She must be watching too much fantasy tv. She picked at a pill on her yoga pants not wanting to admit even to herself that the main problem with the dreams was the yearning. She felt alive and on fire as if she could burn up and drown at the same time, as if her body were clamoring for something, or someone. She would normally attribute it to pms but this was different. Every dream, whether sweet and erotic or terrifyingly bloody made her feel as if she were closer to something. She closed her eyes and let the breeze play with her hair, wondering if she was actually going insane. She wondered if she was going to sleep again tonight and found herself hoping it was not to dream again about blood in an alley.

Jace sat up with a jerk and breathed deeply his body covered in sweat. He swore and raked his hands through his long blonde hair. He slid up until he was against the headboard feeling as if he were live wired to an electrical circuit. His body stood at attention and he could still smell her perfume, lavender and honey. The dreams were getting more real and his body was protesting at waking to find himself alone. They had started out small, glimpses really of a heart shaped face, long brown hair and bright green eyes. They had emerged as some of the most erotic and terrifying of his life. The dreams gave him hope and woke him screaming, the fear and worry of almost losing her. He knew he sounded crazy because he had no idea who she was or why he was dreaming about her but he knew that he was scared shitless every time that huge demon slapped her against that alley wall with it's whip like tail. The sick sound of her hitting the brick echoed in his brain, along with his fear.

The silent brothers had searched his mind but couldn't find anything wrong. They told him that they saw shadows hanging on his soul but couldn't find out from their painful brain probe what was going on, their only suggestion was a past life whose memories were reemerging. Jace had blown it off, not wanting to believe something so stupid. Alec and Isabelle looked at him with impatience telling him he was simply a horny teenager and that combined with their lifestyle had created the dreams. He'd wanted to believe it, but the dreams were more vivid now than ever.

The dream tonight had been the worst, he'd actually heard her body slap the brick, had seen the blood from her head in Technicolor and even now awake he could hear her cry. His skin felt like it was on fire and he couldn't stay in bed, he needed to hunt, he needed to kill something evil. Maybe that would banish this feeling of being ready to jump out of his own skin. He slid out of the institute and down into Brooklyn looking for a fight. The damn demons seemed to love Brooklyn, he didn't know if the people were simply easier prey here in its close dark alleys but this was where he could go to find the physical exertion he needed to sleep tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Clary huddled closer into her hoodie, having given up on sleep. She shimmied down the fire escape and out into the pre dawn darkness. She should have been worried, she guessed, but she'd lived here all her life and everything seemed like home. She stayed to the shadows watching the early risers coming out of their nests. The corner grocer, the workers coming from a late shift at the central park conservatory and random people tucking button down shirts into pants and hurrying to unknown destinations. Clary envied them their sense of purpose, she envied them, their seemingly carefree life. Since the dreams had started all she could seem to do when she could focus enough to draw was to create strange patters of swirling lines that seemed to call to her. She'd gotten so scared she'd burned her last new notebook. Clary waited on the step for Marv the owner of Java Jones to open. He opened at 5, thank god, but she was itchy and uneasy standing outside the back door. She rubbed her eyes laying her head back against the brick. Her head throbbed and she knew she had to do something soon or her mother was going to have her committed. Maybe she was going crazy. Clary heard the door open and plastered a wide smile on her face, Marv was a friendly old Jewish guy who went to Simon's temple and she really liked him, he didn't deserve to deal with her weirdness. Plus he might call her mom and she really didn't need that.

Clary's eyes widened and her smile turned into a horrified scream as Marv Lurched out the door toward her slapping her back against the wall. He fell against her heavily and began to moan. Clary supported him the best she could but froze at the sight in the doorway. A large , no more than a boy really, with shocking blue and black hair lounged against the doorframe. His body language suggested clam but he seemed to vibrate with the readiness to move, or attack. He cleaned his nails with a wicked looking knife and seemed entirely preoccupied with it, not seeming to know she was there. She whimpered as a warm sensation flowed down her chest and she realized it was blood. She went to scream but froze again as the man looked up and she saw his eyes. They were red and flashed green fire in their depths, he smiled and showed off long, jagged, blood stained teeth.

"Well what do we have here, a two for one special, this is my lucky day."

Clary felt Marv's breathing slow as he clutched her with the last of his breath. She looked into his eyes and saw the life flicker out as the man approached. Clary felt herself sliding but couldn't stop it. Marv was effectively trapping her to the cold brick wall. Clary tried to move him but his weight stayed lodged there, the only thing between her and the monster approaching.

"Get away from me!" she screamed as she tried again to move Marv's body. "I can protect myself" she said in a voice that sounded weak to her own ears.

The monster laughed as he flung Marv's body like it weighed nothing. It flew through the air and slapped the wall with a wet sound. Clary's eyes followed the movement in horror. Clawed hands wrapped around her throat and lifted her off her feet. Her hands raked at his with no effect. He slammed her back into the brick, once, twice, and a third time until Clary felt something bust.

"Obviously you have the sight." The thing sneered as it looked her over, "But what are you?" It shook her violently as a long tongue slid out and licked at the blood flowing from her temple. "A shadow hunter" it cooed in an ancient voice that sent shivers down her spine "This will be fun."

"No" she said in a whisper, "No please." Clary knew she was going to die, her whole being screamed out against it but she knew without a doubt that this thing planned to kill her. She felt her vision blurring as the thing closed in, sniffing her. She found herself thinking about the dream and the man in them. She wished he were real and she had a chance to meet him.

Jace felt it before he saw it, the darkness lingering around the doorway of the coffee shop. It was a local hangout and all the mundies loved it. Something bad had happened here, death had happened here. Jace heard a sound, a scream cut short and felt his heart pick up, the thing was still here. Jace ran around the building as past as his feet would carry him and stopped short. The thing in the alley was preparing to feast on a mundane. The girl whimpered and tried to pull away but the thing held tight. Blood flowed down her face and she was visibly shaking, Jace felt his senses light up as he strode toward it. From the looks of it this thing had already taken one victim and he was damned if it would take another.

"No" he heard the girl whisper "No please." Jace heard it echo in his head as if he'd heard it a thousand times before. His vision spun for a moment and he saw the alley from his dream. He shook it off and whispered the angel's name to his seraph blade. It lit brightly, distracting the thing as it moved in for the kill. The girl turned cloudy pleading eyes toward him and Jace felt as if he had been kicked. He had seen this girl before, last night in his dream.


End file.
